Russian President Vladimir Putin survived an assassination attempt earlier this year, the New York Times reported citing Ukraine’s intelligence chief.
Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told the online website Ukrayinska Pravda that the Russian president was targeted shortly after his nation invaded its neighbour.
He went on to say the Russian leader was attacked by representatives from the Caucasus region, which sits between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
“This is non-public information. (An) Absolutely unsuccessful attempt, but it really took place … it was about two months ago,” Mr Budanov said.
Ukraine’s Chief of Defence Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov told Pravda the attempt on the Russian tyrant’s life was “absolutely unsuccessful”.
“He was even attacked in the line of, as they say, representatives of the Caucasus not so long ago,” Mr Budanov said.
“This is non-public information. Absolutely unsuccessful attempt, but it really took place… It was about 2 months ago.
“Once again, he was unsuccessful. There is no publicity about this event, but it took place.”
The assassination attempt is said to have taken place in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while the Russian president was on a trip.
In 2017, Putin told filmmaker Oliver Stone that there had been five assassination attempts against him – and the only reason he is alive is that he deals with his own security personally.
‘I do my job and the security officers do theirs and they are still performing quite successfully,’ Putin said in the documentary ‘The Putin Interviews.
Putin is said to travel with his own sniper squad whose role is to locate any shooters and kill them before they are able to pull the trigger on Putin.
In 2012, a former public schoolboy in Britain was arrested in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate Putin.
Adam Osmayev, who is from a prominent Chechen family opposed to Putin, was seized by special forces in Odessa and he allegedly confessed to wanting to travel to Moscow and kill Putin, then a presidential candidate, by bombing his motorcade.
The news emerged just hours before Putin appeared on state TV meeting with ally Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi, when he was caught on camera awkwardly twisting his feet while the pair sat down for talks.
It is the second time Putin has been filmed making the odd movement, which was caught on camera during a meeting with Tajikistan’s president a week ago, and comes off the back of rumours that he is suffering from Parkinson‘s.
Emomali Rahmon appeared to notice the movement during his meeting with Putin and glanced at the leader’s feet, though did not raise it in conversation.
Critics have suggested the twisting motion could be an attempt to cover up the kind of involuntary twitches caused by Parkinson‘s – after Putin was seen shaking his arm and led before another meeting with Lukashenko on February 18.
Since then, he has been seen to grip the arms of chairs and corners of tables in what some believe to be an effort to disguise any shaking.
Whispers about Putin’s health began at least two years ago when he was said to be suffering from both Parkinson’s and cancer, but have received renewed attention in the wake of his invasion of Ukraine.
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